Thursday, 19 November 2015

Food for thought - "were you ever happy?"

Happiness appears to be all around, even the graffiti in
Bhutan exudes messages of joy and positivity – soulful scribble. “Different is
beautiful” and “Never let go of your dreams” whisper to us from the side walls
of the shops.Around one corner I’m delighted
to spy an advertising slogan of “get enlightened, read a book” in front of a
small bookshop and then a few meters away a smiley face and rainbow with “lets
all read”.

Over breakfast we read our itinerary and decided there’s too
much packed in for such a short time frame – 1 day, which isn’t due to begin
until at least 9am. There’s a few-hours-hike to a monastery, three museums,
three temples, a Dzong, the weekend market, and later in the evening – the one
thing we definitely earmarked for our tour - and are really looking forward too - a cooking class.We’re not ‘go and tick it off’ people and so
we narrow it down to the weekend market, the Giant Buddha and the Dzong, with
our cooking class in the evening.When
we meet our guide and tell him our plans along with wanting to have the whole of
the afternoon to wander by ourselves in Thimphu so we can do some
shopping and chill at Ambient Café, our
guide is a little confused – most tourist want to see it all he tells us.

First stop is the wet market which is quite a chilled – and
chili – affair.The produce market is in
a spacious and spotlessly clean multi-storey building and practically every
stall has a bag or tray of chilies for sale along with all its other
goods.I’ve never seen so many vibrant
fire-red and glossy green chilies in my life, there are fresh chili, dried
chili, crushed chili, chili garlands, bags of chilies, chilies in jars and
chili mixed with other ingredients.Along with the chilies, the other very common item for sale is cheese,
especially the strings of hard-as-a-rock (insert name of cheese) which needs to
be left in the mouth for quite some time to soften before biting into it,
unless you’re keen on a dentist visitation. We’re surprised by the varied
selection of fresh vegetable and fruit on offer for sale and our guide tells us
that Bhutan grows a lot of its own produce – all organic and completely spray
free – and what it doesn’t grow, comes from India.

Their meat and fish selection however is not
as varied nor as plentiful, but Mal finds a sniff delight in the sausage department and hankers after a slice of salami.

Across the road and over a delightful timber and brick covered
bridge – with the most gorgeous mandala on the ceiling – is the handicraft market
which is full of thangkas, prayer wheels in every size, phalluses in every
colour and surprisingly, crude ashtrays - very strange in a country where smoking is basically banned.

From the market we wander along the road past the very elaborate and manicured
football stadium where we join a number of monks to peer through the
closed barred gates and watch the national team practise.The monks are super excited.After a while of watching the team do warm up
stretches and not much else, we leave and soon find ourselves at the National
Archery Stadium of Changlinethang where a tournament is in place.

The archers are in full national dress (the
Gho) with joggers, which although looks a little strange with long socks
doesn’t at all reduce their elegant appearance – and it’s all very
serious.We’re very close to the
shooting line and clearly hear the swoosh and thud.

The thud is always followed by a rousing cheer and yell from down at the target end and from the shooters end the team encircles and begins a song and dance. I notice that amongst the crowd of keen
onlookers, there’s only males; grown and child and many monks – they absolutely
love the competition and watch with intense concentration – I’m the only woman
in the audience.I ask our driver if
women compete and he laughs and shakes his head, “No, this is for men
only.”I tell him that back home women
compete in all sports and we have very good archers.He looks amused.As we leave the ground, we find ourselves amused by the notice warning about stray arrows, and wonder how many tyres get 'punctured'.

Just as we’re leading the archery our guide suggests we stop
at the National Memorial Chorten, built in memory of the third king in 1974 and being the temple junkie I am I eagerly agree.It’s beautiful.A large white chorten with twelve enormous
mani wheels near the front entrance, it sits on a large gardened round-a-bout and
is well visited.Our guide tells us that
many elderly people come here every day and spend most of their day here, chatting,
meditating, and doing 108 circumambulations of the Chorten.We do three.

From a beautiful peaceful memorial to a much loved king to an
oversized enormous Buddha that I’m sure would confuse the original Buddha as to
the true philosophy of his word.It
screams ‘look at me’ and is all gold and glitz, so much so, it hurts the eyes
to look at it in the stark midday sun.Gifted to Bhutan by Singapore we’re told that every piece of the building
and its adornments were imported in from Singapore and costs a ridiculous
amount.As we walk around it I can’t
help wondering “Why”?and wouldn’t the
money been better spent helping the Bhutanese improve their medical
and education programmes.I find I’m
becoming more perplexed about the contradiction of happiness and simpler life
with the over the top ostentation and can’t see how gold leaf attached to a
wall can bring happiness to a nation. I mention this to the guide and he smiles and says "It brings happiness to the people to see it." He then tells me that the 'third eye' is made up of precious stones - it all doesn't make sense to me.Up-close and inside the building is wall to wall gold, and houses 1000
small buddhas along with some beautiful artworks, including an intricate
thangka made entirely of silk thread embroidery – the thangka is unbelievably stunning.

Next to Buddha park, is a walking trail to a prayer-flagged festooned park that was opened in celebration of the marriage of the 5th
King.Holding a Guinness World Record
for the most amount of trees – one thousand - planted at exactly the same time,
Kuenselphodrang Nature Park is at a height of over 3000feet and has the most spectacular
views of Thimphu city and the valley.

Spectacular however falls short for describing
the Thimphu Dzong, our next stop. Surrounded by rose gardens, the Dzong is
opposite the Royal Family’s palace and the National Parliament of Bhutan.We’re asked not to photograph the right side
of the roadway as we walk up to the Dzong, as well as the first part of the
Dzong as it is the administrative centre for not just the area but also the
nation.There’s only a small part of the
Dzong we can visit – the temple and the central courtyard – it’s a beautiful
Dzong and what we are allowed to click away at shows nothing of its majesticness
and beauty.The temple is incredibly beautiful
and ornate and inside all I want to do is sit and while away some meditation
time, but this is barely possible with the coming and goings of the tour
groups. Plus our stomachs are grumbling – it’s lunch time, and as breakfast was
nothing more than toast and tea, I’m eager for some real flavoursome food. We’ve
noticed there is no such thing as morning tea on our ‘tour’ nor is there any
chance to pop into a coffee shop for a pick-me-up caffeine shot.

Unfortunately lunch is again a buffet affair
and consists of rice, noodles, butter fried vegies, fried potatoes and a stewed
chicken dish.The only flavour on offer is
good ol’ chili cheese as a side-dish. I’m mystified as to why we can’t choose
our own restaurant or menu choices.

After lunch we question our guide as to what dishes we will
be learning to cook in our much anticipated class tonight.He tells us ‘chili cheese.’‘And?’ we ask.He looks perplexed, ‘just chili cheese,’ he replies.‘Better not be just chili cheese.’ I
retort, then I ask if it's possible to go to the restaurant and speak to the
chef. We drive to a very swish looking restaurant that has a
French-cum-vintage look to it, a beautiful restored Royal Enfield is displayed
at the front and inside it has beautiful thick chunky timber tables and iron
lace chairs.We’re introduced to the
chef and with solemn apologies, he tells us we won’t be having a class tonight
as he has a function to cater for.We
stunned and wonder when this was (if it was) portrayed to our tour company or
our guide.Back in the car we ask our
guide what alternative might be made, he replies with, ‘That activity will no longer be happening.'I’m far from impressed.We ask to be taken back to town so we
can have the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, and also suggest
that because tonight’s class was cancelled, and as last night’s dinner was not
very nice, we will find our own restaurant for this evenings meal.Our guide tells us we are not allowed to
choose our own restaurant, he will organise it.And as we drive back to the centre of town he then tells us that we are
going to the paper factory. My patience has become rice-paper thin.

The paper factory tour does not eventuate and as we alight from the car we notice the air has cooled and it is late afternoon, the sun no longer lighting up the beautiful artwork on the centre of town - it's too late to get photos. Instead we spend the rest of
the afternoon relaxing at Ambient Café and indulge in a coffee bean haze of
joy.Later we wander down to the square
and find a large screen in front of the clock tower and lots of excited
locals eagerly waiting for a film on the Black Neck Crane to
begin.It’s the National Conservation
Film Festival, being held as part of the celebration lead-up for the Fourth Kings
60th birthday.We join the crowd until the
cold gets too much for us then we scurry away to the restaurant that has been
organised for our dinner.It’s an
upmarket restaurant and we get all excited at the thought that it’ll be al-la-cart
and eagerly await a menu – but no, it’s buffet.As we line up to help ourselves we begin
chatting to one of the staff behind the counter and find she is the manager of
the restaurant.Our conversation comes
round to our cancelled cooking class and how disappointed we are and she tells
us she owns a little homestay/lodge in Paro and offers cooking classes to
her clients, and if we’d like, we are welcome to do a cooking class there when
we return to Paro at the end of our tour.We are delighted and ask for a card to pass onto our tour company and guide. Then to our surprise she apologises for the lack of spicy flavour to the food serve at the restaurant and adds that she is 'embarrassed.' "But you will be delighted with the real taste of Bhutanese" she adds.

Just as we’re finishing our meal and readying to leave, the
manager comes over to wish us a good journey and then tells us our guide has
rung to check that we came to the restaurant for our meal.A feeling of being ‘watched’ comes over us.

As we leave we pass a graffitied wall -“were you ever happy?” - the
message whispers and I wonder - are they.

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A little bit about me...

I'm forever wondering "what's over there" and looking for a way to discover it. A daughter of the Gypsies wanderlust burns in my veins. When I'm not trotting off to new horizons, I'm exploring creative ways to express my life’s story.
The most important people in my life - Big M. "the Bud" and Gorgeous Gal.